GARDEN GROVE ANTIQUES Local store flourishes and relocates

The store will open at a new, bigger location Saturday.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- A year ago, Tony Carbon and his wife, Sherri, loaded a truck with odds and ends they'd bought at auctions and headed for their hometown to open a small antiques shop after spending 10 years in Atlanta.
Business in downtown Struthers has been so brisk, Garden Grove Antiques quickly outgrew its 900-square-foot Poland Avenue storefront, forcing Carbon to relocate his showroom. The new store will open Saturday in a former banquet hall with a 6,500-square-foot sales floor.
"Business has been really good, a lot better than I thought it would be," Carbon said. Sales have tripled since the store first opened, allowing him to expand into what he calls "higher quality" antiques, he said.
"We have a real good mix from turn-of-the-century and Victorian to 1950s," Carbon said. Eighty percent of Garden Grove's inventory consists of home furnishings, the remaining 20 percent of Depression glass and other collectibles.
Steady sales mandated that Carbon continuously replenish his inventory and at one point, he said, he had four storage units packed full. "But I couldn't sell it if it was in storage, so we decided to move to a bigger place," he said.
Regular customers come from as far as Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Carbon continued. "We also have a lot from right around the corner. A lot of Struthers folks are into antiques."
Achieving success
Carbon credits the success of his business to fair and competitive pricing. "I'd rather sell a whole bunch of stuff and make a little on each piece rather than try to make a lot on a single item. That's how you build repeat business," he said. "People feel like they're getting a deal."
Despite the sluggish economy, Carbon said, fair prices have kept his customers coming back.
Carbon's sister, Angela Wojcik, who inspired him to open the shop, operates her own antiques business in Atlanta and visits Struthers every few months to fill her truck with antiques her brother gathers for her to sell. So, demand for competitively priced antiques in the South has helped boost business too, Carbon said.
He also expects the parents of young children to also become a mainstay of his business. Being the father of young children himself, Carbon said he knows what it's like to spend an entire visit to an antiques shop hovering over a child, continuously repeating, "Don't touch that."
So, he and his wife plan to section off one area of the showroom and transform it into what he calls "a kiddie corral." Then, he said, parents will be able to enjoy their visits to Garden Grove Antiques.
Grand opening celebrations at the new store located at 110 Lowellville Road, the former St. Anthony Society's banquet hall, will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Summer hours at Garden Grove Antiques are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
kubik@vindy.com